Friday, August 24, 2012

Book Talk: Starling-Spoiler Alert

Summary (minor spoilers): This book begins some time after the end of Tempestuous, the last in the Wondrous Strange Trilogy. There are allusions made to the events of the trilogy in the book, and so there will be spoilers in the summary. Off you go to read those books first.*shoos away*. All-new heroine Mason Starling is a fencer, preparing for national team qualifying matches (sorry, bouts). She's pretty handy with a sword, but not quite prepared to fight against the terrifying creatures that attack her and a group of her fellow students during a freak storm and power outage. In crashes a stranger (literally crashes, destroying a rainbow glass window in the process) who pretty much single handedly saves the day, herding them all underground and beheading the monsters left and right. Trapped underground until sunrise, they learn that the stranger remembers nothing about himself, save his name: the Fennrys Wolf (there ensues and argument about the use of the in a name).

Mason and Fenn embark on a quest to figure out who Fennrys is, why his memories were taken, why strange monsters seem to be attacking them left and right (whether they're actually after Fennrys of Mason is unclear, as the attacks happen while there together), and how Mason's supposed to win a bunch of fencing bouts while all this craziness is happening.

Response:
This book. I honestly don't know how to describe my reaction. It yanked me in. It really did. So it gets points for that. It's definitely a teen book, probably more toward the younger set... but that didn't stop me liking it. I can get past the intsa-love, and manage to get pulled in... somehow, its one of those books that shouldn't work together, but somehow does. It has a certain charm.

There's something about Lesley Livingston's writing that just clicks for me, and has since I read Wondrous Strange years ago. She has a knack for mixing humor with action with romance with magic(k) that I really enjoy.

I really like Lesley Livingston's heroines. Especially Kelley from Wondrous Strange and now Mason from Starling. I think they'd get along pretty well if the ever met (they both seem to use Fenn as the personal punching bag a little bit). It would actually love for them to meet. Though that would be a little awkward. And it was nice to see Fenn again. Re-alive. Heather reminds me of Tyff from Wondrous Strange, and I hope she gets to continue playing a role in this series.

And a little bit of a cliffhanger, much? In quick succession the real reason for Mason's extreme claustrophobia, and a super cliffhanger ending. Off Fenn goes on (another) merry quest of impossibility. Really wondering if he'll have to pass through the Otherworld to get to Helhiem. And hoping for more character cameos (just little ones, I kind of miss them a lot, and the whole impending to caused by the damage to the Gate has got to be everyone's problem right?). In one of here blog posts the author mentioned that she had penned a short story about Maddox and Chloe, but due to issues with the publisher it didn't end up in print. I hope it makes it to print some time, (maybe as a bonus feature or something? or an ebook?).

This Book Was Read: In Chapters, in the car on the way home from Chapters, at the table during lunch (carefully), and as I wandered the house. It, like Ms. Livingston's other books, is really hard to put down, and, for me, was one that I finished in under twelve hours.

P.S. A quote, because I'm actually I really like this quote

"I had to tell Toby [fencing teacher] that you were at math tutorial, the math tutor that you were at fencing practice, your brother that you were at the bowling alley, and your other brother that you were at the library." -Heather